Hi all,

Been reading this forum for a few months now but only just registered. I have a Moosegoose that I have been wanting to resto for a long time but never seem to ge around to it. After a long time of sitting on it I got stated on my Moosegoose Restoration project. Ive had this bike for 25yrs. I loved it so much as a kid and something made me keep it all this time. After many offers over the years to sell it I could never part with it. The bike is still complete but rundown and in need of resto. Here is a pic in 1982 when I got it for my 7th bday.



It sat untouched for about 15yrs like this



yesterday the tear down began.........................

















Ok so a few questions.

1.First I have to have the F/F/Bars all re chromed or Nickel plated?
2.I also need the 2 small stickers for the gooseneck and h-bars/ where do I find them?
3. Im also looking for new pedals (rat trap kind) where to find?
4. Should I have the gold goose neck stem replated too? if so what plating is it?

Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated as this wil be my first resto. Anyone in Melbourne that would recommend a plater? I'll keep updating with any progress pics.

cheers and this was great finding this forum.

Awesome bike and story!!! I too own a Moosegoose and love it. Theyr'e great bikes.

One question though- how does a 7 year old end up getting a huge frame Moosegoose instead of a regular Mongoose??? The Mooses were designed for someone over 6ft. tall... they were also really expensive new!

As far as your resto goes... looks like a great project to start with, mostly complete bike in pretty good survivor condition...

check out Ted Carls threads here in the Restoration section about Oxalic Acid rust removal and the How to Polish thread...

A good soap and hot water bath followed by a SOAKING in WD-40 will clean up those Tuff Wheels like new... get a repro decal set from Ebay... your on your way!
Be sure to take pics as you progress!

Ha...., I'm still not tall enough for you bike....

I'm new but have been following along and doing some of my own stuff. Lets just say you are ahead of the game because you already own the stuff.

Why do you think you need to get the frame re-plated, it does not look that bad?
soapy bath, degrease, soap bath again, then soak in a de-rust solution (like Oxalic Acid), just read that very long piece a few times. You don't want to mess it up. I use a more expensive solution and it actually is better but way to much $$$, www.evapo-rust.com.

I to am looking to get a goose neck re-plated (the bottom part), it's brass.

Parts like pedals, try to find here and then ebay, just be patient

The decals/stickers can be found are on ebay but watch out for crappy repos. Ask Bill (who runs this site), he has a few future decal projects (like 80's mongoose and Roger Decoster decal sets). Maybe they are on his project list. Hold up for them, they are good quality and officially approved.

O...clean up and sell those 80's pads, the Velcro ones (not the vinyl button ones) , they don't go with that bike and you could make some $$ for you pedals on Ebay.

John

My coworker and I just did a quick browse, and we were about soiling ourselves, we thought for sure that was a 16 inch mini-moose, and didn't know there was such a thing.....

I guess its a 20, but it sure does look like a 16 in that photo.

I agree, I still need blocks on the pedals to ride a moose, were your parents trying to get you to grow up faster? lol

A 16 inch Mini-moose. Now that would win at the rock for sure! .......Just remember who's idea it was.....lol.

Somebody is going to do it now aren't they!? lol ...."Hello, Rod, I need you to......."

T

Thanks for the comments guys.
So J. Sanzone the bottom part of the goose neck is brass, thanks i'll look into having that done.
Can someone confirm that the frame is nickel plated on these mongooses?

Unlikely brass. Gold anodized. Can be re-anodized but usually not easy or cheap. Or the remaining anodized portions can be stripped with lye if I remember correctly. Anodized parts are really too new for most of my stuff so I'm no expert but there "are" plenty around here. Someone will help of you can search and probably find a couple of thread about it.

You are really lucky to still have your original bike and to have it in such great shape. I really doubt you need a rechroming. Probably an oxylic bath followed by some good quality chrome polish and it'll look great. A replate will cost you the better part of half a grand, and the welds will come out over-polished anyway. Do a search for oxylic acid in the restoration forum, and you'll be on your way.

Bill, one of the moderators has already created licensed reproduction moosegoose deals, and they look awesome. I bought some myself.

The base plate is what chromers call a brass plating. I guess it was pretty popular in the late 70's, but most shops don't do it anymore. underneath the brass is chrome plated steel. I've seen some guys have it gold electroplated. A cheaper way to go is gold transparent spray paint. I think it's made by Duplex(?) and found at auto parts stores.

The Tuffs can look nearly new again with enough elbow grease. Personally, I use a green 3M scrub pad and some soft-scrub type bathroom cleaner with a lot of water. Once with color is restored, you can make it really pop by coating them in a light oil, like WD40 or baby oil.

Don't replace any part unless it's absolutely destroyed. Those blue mongoose grips and vinyl pads look really nice. I'm looking forward to seeing this one when you are done!

Read the whole OA thread for sure.

Don't soak the Nickel for too long in the OA bath. It will eventually oxidize in there and it will be more work to polish it out. It is Nickel for certain.

Read up on the polishing and OA threads.

There is no chrome plating on top of the nickel, so too long of a soak in the OA is a bad thing. But a nice 4 to 8 hour soak should be just enough to get the rust off, and not further tarnish the nickel.

Brass plating on the stem. Try polish on it first.

Then after a brief OA bath, polishing the nickel on the frame will be the ticket.

Don't forget to take some pix.

I have been inquiring about and few sources said it was brass (plating). Ted and z-man99 also agree on the brass.

Has anyone in the States delt with www.qualitychromeplating.com
http://www.qualitychromeplating.com/bicycles.php

I have been emailing them back and forth about the problems Ted has has come upon but we are still trying to get on the same page.
They said:
"John
We have been in business for 30 years and been doing BMX and antique bike parts since then you are right about the polishing of the welds off most polisher do that not ours they never do that Also we do work on old race cars that are made of welded moly tubing and welded they have to keep all the weld detail for tech inspection We have been doing that for 25 years. If you get a chance send us a part for any plating We do not do anodizing

Thanks

Gary

www.qualitychromeplating.com"


So...Some from here has had to have work done by them????????????

It seems the you found them...

Judas Priest even wrote a song about them....:

Metal Gods

Hey Ted - are you sure that's nickel???

Mine is chrome. The 81 Mongoose catalogue lists them as available in "show chrome, black, candy red, candy blue" as does the September '80 BMXA.

The Mooses were a high end bike more on a par with the Team Gooses and Supergoose than the regular Motomag. I didn't think they were ever available in nickel???

Yes, the Moosegooses are chrome.

I stand corrected then. ...I defer to the much more knowledgeable goose peeps. I've never heard Chrome, and Goose in the same sentence before. That's cool. With goose making bikes with all the different labels on them, I can't keep up. They are as bad or worse than flight cranks with all the details....lol.

Gotta love it when Mongooses and Flight cranks are in the same "bad or worse" boat together... not bad company! I'm with you, Ted... Mongooses should have stayed nickel plated... that warm golden glow complimented the original stickers perfectly and had a serious "taking care of business" look when you pulled up to the track in 1976!

Richard Vogt
bmxmountainbiker

Here are few more progress pics before I take it to get chrome plated. Still thinking about having the gooseneck replated because it will be under the pad and not seen. What do you guys think?






A few close ups so you can see its true condition. Pics are sometimes deciving.











Did most Mooses in Australia also have this sticker on them?

Never seen that sticker on one yet?! Mine I imported from the US though and was originally sold by the Saratoga Bike Centre in California.

Seriously - that rust will clean up beautifully with Oxalic acid mate - I wouldn't be rushing into a rechrome!?!

i'll second that- ALL that rust should disappear with a proper Oxalic acid bath... at least try it and see what ya get!

You know I'm in on that one too....OA first.

I already spoke with him last year Ted...LOL

Keep us posted on your restoration. I am also on the verge of re-creating my ORIGINAL moose that I purchased from a buddy back in 1980. I am waiting to hear back from Rod on a few things I need done prior to the build up.

As to the question of Moose's being Chrome, yes, the majority 99.99% were in fact chrome, if they were not painted in Black, Red or Blue. I know of at least 2 BITD that were Nickel Plated. I wish mine was one of them, but I hear that Muriatic Acid will take care of that.

I once heard that the candy red and blue mooses were transluscent epoxy over nickel, but mine was candy red over chrome. I once owned a Team Mongoose that was candy over nickel, though.


I'll add my voice one more time in favor of an oxy bath and polish instead of a re-chrome, especially with the original fork tube and seat tube stickers that you will never be able to replace.

It looks like the Oxalic Acid wins. I got some yesterday and I'll try it out today. I was only able to find the liquid stuff, but I guess it works the same. Thanks for the tips keepem coming.

Good luck with OA bath. I'm glad you are giving it a try.

I tried the Oxalic Acid and it came up nice. But there is pitting there and some deep scratches that you cant see in the pics. So Ive decided to have it re chromed. I should have taken pics but I forgot. . Ill post some pics of the pedals I striped today soon.

I needed to replace the pedals on the Moose but had no luck finding chrome ret trap ones. I got some NOS blues ones from ebay and had a go at striping them. I read it somewhere here on how to use paint striper. I thought I better document this and see if it works.

Here goes NOS pedals (blue)



Paint striper




old and new



bearings and shaft out



a little sanding



appling paint striper

Um, wow...

rub-a-dub dub





hose off



almost there



had to use the shaft from the old pedals (1 piece crank) as the new ones were for a 3 piece crank.

mask and paint




Ill post finished later, still drying.

Nice job mate.

I stripped my red set of KKTs and they come up a dream - the plastic coating does a great job of protecting the fresh chrome underneath.

I didn't bother doing any sanding. A sharp toothpick does a great job of picking out the pesky bits of coating left in tight corners.

Ok, I have a very dumb question here (at least I think it's dumb, because I had always assumed otherwise):

That is not chrome plating under the blue is it? Is this how all old rat trap pedals look under the coloring? I'm stunned (but I feel weird for feeling stunned). I had always expected to see some sort of bare metal under the colored pedals.

I'm not sure I would have stripped an NOS set. The chrome ones do show up on Ebay from time to time. But they did turn out nice.

K I W, Yes the its chrome under the blue candy like paint. I found it hard to find a NOS set of chrome rat traps and this was good fun to see if it worked.

Hey Kurt,

here they are finished.

Nice work, cool pics... Love the whole story! Thanks for sharing, I'll stay tuned for more! Cheers!

i had the crank and a few small bits to clean up. I tried the Oxalic Acid bath again. i think they turned out ok . What do you think?















Still needs a bit more chrome polish.

Big improvement - look great.

You've gotta love the Oxalic Acid - a bit of residual patina of age is fine.

You must be well on the way with the old girl now - much more to do?

The OA and a good polish with Autosol and a Dremel will bring the base of the gold stem up too. Try not to "over-polish" the clamps - they were never super shiny originally.

This one was very rusty and used - amazing how they come up.

This is an amazing story. It is like an online book of how to- you are doing a great job and not rushing anything. Tike will make everything work out for the best. You are going to be so happy when it is finished and all the people here have a lot of knowledge on restoring every part of this bike. And what we don't know, we sure stand firm on our guesses!

I did see a question posted about Team Mongoose Candy blue and red over Nickel or over Chrome.

The VERY early (78, early 79's) were painted candy blue right over Nickel. Then BMX Products switched from Nickel plating to Chrome plating in 79 (mid to late) and continued until .... Anyhow, the early ones were apinted right over the Nickel. The chrome ones (early Chrome) were painted right over the chrome. All these chipped so badly it is still hard to find one today with paint on it! Then at some point (I am guessing late 80 or early 81) they did a base coat to try and get the paint to adhere better. Not sure it worked any better but then phased out the Candy colors altogether. I have had every year Team made and the BEST looking finishes are the very early ones (opinion of course) but the least durable.

Keep posting those restoration shots please. It is nice to see a work in progress! I have to run now and strip some colored Rat Traps!

Wow! More great pics! A "Resto in Progress" is always one of the best threads around here... Thanks for sharing the journey, especially when it's such a classic vintage Goose! I'm sure I speak for many in saying how cool your project is!

Thanks for the comments guys. Im waiting on the frame from the chrome platers, then it will be assembled in a few days I hope.

Killer work..
Labors of love are just like this and thank you for sharing all of your pictures.. I leep looking for more to see what this beautie turns out like.

Thanks for keeping us updated on your build. I can't wait to see it all shiney and pretty..

Break clean up time.

Before





After a little autosol.



old and new brake pads. what a colour difference.

Very happy to see you used Autosol.....I use it for polishing and I have to say it is by far the best metal polish I've ever used!

The Goose is coming along nicely

More pics ala your pedal restoration... We're waiting... Your bike is the bomb!!!

Finally after more than 2 months at the chrome platers I got my frame back. Its not the best job, but I'm gonna ride it so it will do. Give me about 24hrs and I'll be riding, post more pics soon.

Chrome looks pretty good from where i'm sitting!

MMMMM Virgin Chrome....

Looking VERY nice. Who did the plating for you?

A few more update pics.



















Anyone know where I can buy some blue brake cables in Melb? thanks

more pics















Now Im just waiting on my front tuff from Ed @ colored tuffs. Ed if you read this get back to me!!!

She looks great!

They really are a lovely decal set to put on aren't they - nice thick vinyl and great glue. Look a million dollars too.

22.2 is the right size post too - what sort are you looking for? - I can get NOS fluted alloy posts in several colours from a local shop for about $15 (I'm down in Tassie).

Cheers Kurt

Hi Kurt thanks for the offer on the seat post but I have one now. Im still chasing some blue brake cables. Been to all the local bike shops and no one has any or infact much bmx stuff at all. Anyone know where I can find some?

Contact Waza07 off the site here. I bet he can help you out. IF for some reason (within 48 hours) he cannot, I can. I am sending out a package to him and can include some true vintage brake cable in blue! You will have to contact him for it after that though.